Martial Artist

The martial artist is a figure out of legend, a fighter shrouded in mystery and awe. They are formidable warriors. Whit rigorous training and extreme discipline only the few and most talented can hope to be named a master of the martial arts.

Contents

Weapon Proficiencies: The martial artist is proficient with the Quarterstaff and his fists. And his unarmed damage and abilities work with both.

Armor Proficiencies: Martial Artists are only proficient with padded armor. When wearing any other armor, using a shield, or carrying a medium or heavy load, a martial artist loses his AC bonus, as well as his fast movement and flurry of blows abilities.

When a martial artist uses flurry of blows, he can make a number of attacks
Equal to half his level rounded up. (example a level 3 martial artist will have 2 attacks as a result of this).For every consecutive attack he performs after the first he gets a -2 cumulative penalty to his attacks. The flurry of blows also stops if he should miss on a hit, no matter how many attacks he might have left. As the martial artist progress he can choose to end the flurry of blows early to preform powerful finishing moves.

When a martial artist gains the finishing moves ability, he can spend 1 ki to activate a special finishing move. Some finishing moves like stunning fist can be used outside of a stance, while other finishing moves are directly linked to its representative stance. An example being tiger’s fury, which can only be used while in the crouching tiger stance.

When a martial artist preforms this finishing move he spends 1
Ki point, and preforms a move that immediately ends the flurry of blows, no matter how many more attacks the martial artist have left. Should the martial artist hit with this move, the enemy must make a fort save or be stunned for 1 round. The dc for this attack is 10 + the martial artist's con modifier + the number of consecutive attacks the martial artist have hit the enemy with this round.

When unarmored or in padded armor and unencumbered, the martial artist adds his con bonus to ac and CMD (if any). In addition starting at 2nd level the martial artist will gain ac as shown on his table. This armor is considered Natural armor.

A martial artist that reaches this stage in his fighting style can strike precisely and accurate at the weak points in opponents defenses. He can therefore use his dexterity instead of strength as damage bonus.

From 3rd level and onward a martial artist can enter stances; this is fighting techniques that the martial artist uses to adapt to situations on the battle field. The act of being in a stance put a heavy strain on both the physical and metal fortitude of the martial artist, so he can only maintain stances for a set amount of time every day. The number of rounds a martial artist can maintain a stance is 1 round/level for every Ki spent. Entering a stance is a swift action, unless otherwise noted, and changing stances cost 1 ki. So if i martial artist wanted to change his stance of the crouching tiger to stance of the wind crane, he would spend 1 ki to do that. And if a level 5 martial artist activates a stance of the crouching tiger, it lasts for 5 rounds, he can then as a swift action spend 1 ki to make it last 5 more rounds.

When the martial artist enters this stance, he fights with his hands like paws, thus inflicting slashing damage instead of blunt damage with his unarmed attacks, additionally he gains the ability to use the Finishing move: Tigers Fury, this strike will deal and additional 1d4 damage for every consecutive hit before the finishing move lands. At 9th lev this finishing move instead deals 1d6 points of extra damage per consecutive hit, and at 14th lev the finishing move deals 1d8 points of damage per consecutive hit.

At 5th lev the martial artist gains the ability to enter the stance of the Iron Bull, when entering this stance, the martial artist gains damage reduction 1/- for every consecutive hit until his next turn, and he gains the ability to use the finishing move Staggering Strike in this stance. When using staggering strike, the martial artist knocks some of the balance out of the opponent, thus lowering its atk bonus by 1 for every consecutive strike for 1 round. The opponent can take a ref save dc 10+ martial artist con mod + consecutive strikes to avoid this. At 16th lev the martial artist can instead use the Finishing Move: Takedown, the martial artist sees the weakness of the opponent’s defense and offence and exploits this, thus knocking the target down to prone position. A being with four or more legs get +2 on this save. The dc is 10 + marital artist con modifier + consecutive hits.

A martial artist can as an immediate action spend 1 ki to activate his slow fall ability, this will in turn make him glide through the air instead of falling, thus reducing or negating falling damage should there be any. The slow fall effect last 1 round level. So a martial artist can activate this ability and then make a running jump, to glide through the air to a lower point etc. But the limit for the ability is 20 ft. at 4th lev, and then increasing as on the table. Note that the maximum amount he can reduce his fall with, no matter how many times he activates the ability is 20 ft. at 4th level. So if a 4th level martial artist should fall 60 ft. from a ledge, he can only reduce the damage by that of 20 ft.

A martial artist has by meditation and hard practice gained control of his inner center, he can at will change his form of gravity, giving him the ability to almost fly. A martial artist can by spending 1 ki jump and float through the air a distance equal to his slow fall distance. The martial artist can almost fly, but not completely, therefore he must start and end his jumps on an object. It can be a small ledge, a thin branch on the top of a tree etc. To most people it will look like he is flying. Using this ability is a standard action. But once it is active, a martial artist can stand on that ledge or branch and fight etc. The martial artist can maintain this ability for 1 round/level for every ki spent.

As a martial artist, the study of the mantis and how it hunts have been an intricate part of his training even as a pupil. When the student finally understands and open his mind to these creatures’ precise and merciless strikes he can master the stance of the praying mantis. In this stance the martial artist uses the pointy edges of his body, like finger tips etc., and in doing so he deals precise and piercing damage instead of blunt damage. The martial artist also gains the ability to use the finishing move: Mantis Sting. When using this move, the martial artist strikes precise joints or nerve clusters hampering the movement of his target by 5 feet, this effect stacks until the target has a minimum of 5 feet movement. The dc of this attack is 10 + dex + consecutive strikes.At 11th level the martial artist can also choose to stagger the target if he already has his movement reduced. Then at 13th level the martial artist can make the 3 first attacks of his round with no penalty if the target of his attacks is staggered. Finally at 15th level the martial artist have learned how to target weak joints and nerve clusters so precise that if a target is staggered he can try to paralyze the target for 1 round/level.

A martial artist can activate stance of the wind crane as an immediate action, but this cost twice the amount of rounds it would normally do. (If he has no stances active it will cost 2 points, and if he is in a stance it will cost 4 points to activate it as an immediate action) When the martial artist activates this stance, he gains the ability to deflect incoming projectiles. The way this work is that the martial artist focus on defense, he gains a +4 shield bonus to ac, and he can make attack rolls vs. the projectile. And for every attack that hits an arrow, it deflects that arrow. The dc to hit an arrow is an attack roll of 20 for a non-magical arrow, and the dc goes up by 2 for every +1 enhancement bonus or equivalent the arrow has. If the martial artist has the Deflect Arrows feat, he can use the feat to make one failed roll into a success per round. In addition the martial artist can activate the finishing
Move: Crane Wind: This move deflects up to one volley every round. At level 14 the monk can use the finishing move: Crane Wall to deflect arrows from allies that are within 15 ft. of the martial artist. At level 17 the martial artist can use the finishing move Silver Crane: this allows him to deflect a ray spell, the dc to deflect the ray is equal to the dc of a spell of that level for the caster + 6.

A martial artist can now call himself a true master of self and his fighting style. He can now stay in stances indefinitely. He is also so in control of his physical and mental body that he can negate even the strongest attacks, giving him a 50% chance to negate a critical hit.